Audible Gets Into Children’s Market
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 3/28/2008 8:00:00 AM
Audible is expanding into the market for downloadable children’s audio titles with its newest retail shop, AudibileKids.com. The site, which launches Monday, goes live with nearly 4,000 titles from more than 75 publishers. The offerings, downloadable on a variety of MP3 players (including the iPod), stretch from early reader titles to YA ones. Audible says the site, which will go live with a series of free original short audio titles from R.L Stine, will keep free downloads in the mix; pay-for-titles start at 99 cents.According to Audible, the market for children’s downloadable audio is a fast-growing one, and, up until now, this demo has largely been served by the library market. AudibleKids also features various community aspects—users can rate and recommend titles, among other things. And, for the site, Audible has arranged a publishing agreement with Penguin Young Readers; the company will co-publish titles for the site with the imprint, in addition to its standard licensing agreements with other houses.
